The eldest in a family of three boys, Alok Bhardwaj, hails from Vrindavan (UP), the land of Lord Krishna. His family later moved to the small town of Hissar (Haryana). His father was a scientist, a Ph.D in Microbiology, who joined Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar as Lecturer and retired as Dean. Bharadwaj spent his entire childhood in the university campus within an environment of academia.

He has had a strong desire to be in the forefront of everything—whether it was academics (he was among the top three in the class every year from Class 1 to Engineering and MBA), dramatics or debates. He was also the Head Boy at school.

Learning through observation

There are two things that have shaped his outlook. The first is his observation of his father’s hard work and commitment to his job and the second, his family’s simple life. “I used to see people leading a more materialistic life and I guess aspirations turned into inner strength for me to accomplish more. Honesty, focus and sincerity were some of the values that were established in my core inner self, whom I follow till date,” he said.

Bharadwaj completed his schooling from Hissar, BE (Mechanical) from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh and did his MBA from FMS, Delhi.